Why is Team Fortress 2 performance so terrible?

I have an Acer 6920G which is more than good enough to handle TF2 at high settings. But the thing is, it doesn't. Left 4 Dead, a game with overall heavier graphics as well as the presence of AI, runs better. This makes little sense to me.

It seems to be a CPU issue rather than GPU, but the CPU isn't throttling according to RMClock. I also don't really get the problem with the GPU throttling anymore.

What laptopvideo2go driers are people using with the 6920G or similar laptop(with 9500M GS) for Source based games?

 

Have you enabled multicore support in the video options? I think you'll find it helps in heavy firefights. L4D uses that normally.

TF2 needs a bit less GPU power than L4D so you're right about that.

 

i run it all low on the laptop in my specs with average 20 FPS so u should be able 2 play it fine

 

What he said ^

The source engine is more CPU than GPU.
As well try creating a autoexec.cfg inside steamapps/*username*/team fortress 2/tf/cfg with the contents

 

Is it running slowly or choppy? Because vertical sync off for me makes the game appear choppy when i turn quickly. But if it is running slowly then turning off vertical sync will increase preformance. Internet performance may also influence the smoothness of the game. You should be running this game fine, if none of the above helps check background processes.

 

mat_queue_mode 2 doesn't play nice with multi-core rendering in the advanced graphics options.

I don't know what CPU yours has, but if you're playing large servers it's definitely a CPU limitation.

 

TF2 is indeed a CPU hog - kinda makes me glad I upgraded from the wimpy 1.83 GHz T5550 to my beefy T8300. I got a much more even gaming experience (no more 20 fps on the bridge at ctf_convoy!).

 

That's the problem. It DOESN'T. Telling me it should doesn't really help.

Multicore support is a joke. I get no performance increase and the mouse stutters.

mat_queuemode doesn't cause mouse stutter, but crashes after 5 minutes. Running in a lower dxlevel improves things but again crashes after 5 minutes.

It also never passed 50% on the CPU meter but I imagine that's due to lack of multicore support?

 

What CPU and how much RAM do you have?

 

Double check AA and AF is disabled on the Game settings, then check the Nvidia Cpanel game settings.

The more AA and AF you use the power needed exponentially grows higher.

 

Core2Duo T5900 2.2ghz. 4 gigs of RAM.

TF2 looks horrible without AA though.

 

Make sure in Nvidia Control Panel you set AA to controlled by application.
So, it won't crash or override your TF2 graphic setting.

AA = resource hog
Resolution = resource hog

 

TF2. What a good game.
My desktop setup is a [email protected],4gb ram, ati 4850.
i get 20-30 fps on my favorite server. I run 1680x1050, 2xAA and med/high settings

TF2 was only designed with 24 people or less servers in mind. there is a huge cpu limitation seeing as how everything is physics related. There isn't really any thing thats instant hit like in counterstrike or l4d. i'm pretty sure that this doesn't help either with fps.

Thus a bump up to 32 people will destroy your fps and so will servers with mods on and thats just how it is. i get 100+ fps if i join a 24 man server. but sink to 20 fps when i join my favorite ones.

Map detail is also important. Orange maps are simpler when it comes to textures.